São Paulo – Brasil Foods (BRF), the food sector company that owns brands Sadia and Perdigão, announced on Thursday (4) the signing of an agreement for the company to buy 49% of the capital of da Federal Foods, a food distributor in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for US$ 36 million. The Brazilian company will have deciding power, but the major shareholder (51%) will continue being Al Nowais Investments, the controller of the Arab company.
According to BRF, Federal Foods has been the Sadia distributor in the Emirates for 20 years, and the products of the Brazilian holding currently represent 65% of the organisation’s US$ 266 million in net revenues. The organisation also markets other products, but Brasil Foods has informed that it plans to maintain the partnerships.
BRF said, in a press statement, that apart from Sadia, Federal Foods should also sell products under the Perdix brand, as Perdigão is called in the Arab world, and the products that will be processed at the factory the Brazilian organisation is building in Abu Dhabi, slated for inauguration in 2013.
According to a Federal Foods press statement, the organisation has been in operations since 1991 and supplies food on the retail, wholesale and food service (hotels, restaurants, etc.) sectors. The company has six branches in the Emirates and one in Qatar, employs 1,350 people and a fleet of 260 lorries and vans. Last year, the group traded 92,000 tonnes of products.
The process should be concluded after an audit at the Arab company, says BRF.
*Translated by Mark Ament
